There's a simple factor that separates you from a professional photographer: The professional is never satisfied with taking just one photograph.

In a situation where you might make one photograph, a professional photographer will make anywhere from a dozen to hundreds of exposures of that same single subject. The only thing holding you back? Your finger.

The reason for taking more than one photograph is that a photograph is a frozen moment of time, usually a tiny fraction of a second. And anything can happen in that moment to degrade your photograph. Your subject might blink, your camera might shake, your focus might be off, etc.

Say you're photographing six people in a group shot. Did you know that the average person blinks every six seconds? If you take just one shot, the odds are pretty good that one of these six people will have their eyes closed. And that's not factoring in the moments that some of these six people will be looking off to the side, or have their mouths open talking to each other. Getting one exposure where all six people are in perfect position with their eyes open is trickier than you would have thought. By taking several exposures, your odds of having that one perfect image are increased.

Technical Issues

There are other reasons besides blinking humans for making several exposures rather than one. Technical problems can also be avoided when you have more than one choice.

Whenever I take a photograph, I'll usually make at least two extra exposures just in case. It's become a habit now, just something I do. And I can't tell you how many times it has saved me from being stuck with a frame that's sub-par by being soft or out of focus or in some other way deficient technique-wise.

When I see these soft photographs in the editing stage, I'm always grateful to see the subsequent perfect frame that I usually took immediately after. That safety frame can be a lifesaver.

You Can Never Go Back

The moment in time that you have chosen to photograph will never be repeated. If you fail to capture this moment with your camera there is no time machine to take you back to try again. You've got to get it right or lose it forever.

Shoot A Lot, Show Few

And finally, here's the really big secret that professionals have. They may shoot hundreds of photographs of a certain subject. But you'll probably only see one—the single best photograph they made that day. Great professional photographers are also great editors. They understand that they are judged by their work. And so they won't show you the mistakes, the failed ideas, or even the simply average photographs they've made. Even the legends of photography take mediocre photographs while in pursuit of perfection. But when it comes to showing their work only the very best will ever see the light of day.